PlayForGG's everything UThttps://playforgg.wordpress.com
My past and ongoing Unreal Tournament projectsTue, 14 Aug 2018 13:59:49 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/9583a8a2e2c735655be87824dc75a2a2?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngPlayForGG's everything UThttps://playforgg.wordpress.com
Project Nex forums are onlinehttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/project-nex-forums-are-online/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/project-nex-forums-are-online/#respondFri, 06 Jun 2014 18:28:49 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=224Continue reading Project Nex forums are online→]]>Just a small post to say that the guys from Project Nex opened their new forums.
The forums feel fresh, clean and modern, that’s changing me a lot from what I’m used to.
You can access them at this address : http://forum.nexfps.com/index.php

If you don’t know what Nex is, you can check my previous post on it here.

]]>https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/project-nex-forums-are-online/feed/0NexHeader2playforggShort update on mapping progresshttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/short-update-on-mapping-progress/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/short-update-on-mapping-progress/#commentsThu, 05 Jun 2014 20:55:24 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=221Continue reading Short update on mapping progress→]]>Long time without update but i’ve been a bit busy IRL so i couldn’t work that much on the maps.

Still, i progressed a bit.

DM-Maliwan got some layout changes to fix previous issues. The Bio/Helmet corridor has changed to a full room with 2 floors and a platform. It plays a lot better in this area and its connections than before and is more attractive than just helmet->Lift-jump to Sniper. I’m still moving things around a bit to space the snipe/armor in the duel version. I’ll figure that out.
The minigun area changed a bit also, and i added a room/connection from beta2’s minigun to the 3 vials next to the link. I put the minigun there.
The rest didn’t changed that much apart a couple of flow balance/issues that should be corrected. The map doesn’t feel that cramped/small anymore and that’s a great point :).
I’ve done some brush work too, that add some visual depth to the current really flat look of the map.
I’m starting to revamp all the textures/materials and will work on doing proper lights when the 2D designing and brush work is finished (or at least close to). The ambiance should feel the same, it’ll just have more subtlety and depth.
I’m currently considering ditching the announcement on walls concept as it’s quite performance heavy at the moment and i can’t seem to get working as i’d want.
I don’t know when it will be ready to release as a pre-final as I’m a bit behind my schedule.

DM-ViridianTourney is still in the work on the side. I’ve finished most of the textures, and applied them on their respective location.
I kept the original layout. I just changed how the minigun “area” is for flow concerns. The corridor there is double the width of the original with 2 pillars at the middle and the 2xHP on the far side. There’s a small room between this corridor and the stairs in the corner of the Shock area. I’ve put the minigun in there.
I still need to do some brush work so the map is not as flat as the UT99 one. The brush work will only serve to reproduce what the textures represented in the original map. After that I’ll work on the lights to try to emulate the ambiance of the original.
The map plays well and feels true to the original so far. There will be nothing fancy as it’s more of a remake to get some old-school feels playing it than a revamp of the map.

A really short project I’m doing at the moment when i don’t have the time to work on the rest is a “new” weapon. It’s an Instagib rifle that deals 55 damage with primary (like the UT99 shock). I’m trying to get the secondary to do an instant hammer-jump without enemy damage and a long cooldown. I still have to implement the secondary correctly as at the moment it’s working like a standard hammer primary. It’s aimed at a variation for Sniper CTF/iCTF with a more balanced use of Armor and health items and the use of the hammer secondary as a mean to catch-up or do awesome plays. Probably not that competitive, but it’s really fun to play anyway. Currently goes by the name of ShockTag.

]]>https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/short-update-on-mapping-progress/feed/1playforggGuide to a proper UT3 setuphttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/guide-to-a-proper-ut3-setup/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/guide-to-a-proper-ut3-setup/#respondSun, 18 May 2014 17:44:51 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=211Continue reading Guide to a proper UT3 setup→]]>Feeling like UT3 is on par with UT99 and UT2kx when it comes to lot of things (or better even in certain things), but seeing it being trashed by people that (i’m comfident of that) never played it past the release year, i’m doing this Guide to help you set up UT3, and play it to its full potential, where it will kicks UT99’s and UT2kx’s old butts.
I know UT3 was really bad at release, with no content, shit UI and crap graphics. That’s no more true. Give it a chance and you’ll love it. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already in the right state of mind, and that’s good

When you’ll have followed this simple guide to the end, you’ll have a great UT game, with lots of varied and fun maps to play on, a selection of must have mods and mutator and direction on where to play, find people and other mods/maps. The only crap thing that’ll still be there is that bloody server browser.

]]>https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/guide-to-a-proper-ut3-setup/feed/0UT3LogoplayforggNew official Unreal Tournament in the works, made by Epic Games with the help of the communityhttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/new-official-unreal-tournament-in-the-works-made-by-epic-games-with-the-help-of-the-community/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/new-official-unreal-tournament-in-the-works-made-by-epic-games-with-the-help-of-the-community/#commentsSun, 11 May 2014 13:35:01 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=156Continue reading New official Unreal Tournament in the works, made by Epic Games with the help of the community→]]>You probably all know by now that a new UT is in the works, developped by Epic Games on Unreal Engine 4 with the help of the community. It should be free.

Before going into my thoughts about this i’d like to refresh memories about its goal and features.

For starter, here’s some info from the wiki for those that don’t know them yet :

We’ve created a small team of UT veterans that are beginning work on the project starting today.

From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We’ll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates.

If you are a fan and you want to participate, create a free account and join the forum discussion.

All code and content will be available live to UE4 developers on GitHub.

The game will be true to its roots as a competitive FPS.

Development will be focused on Windows, Mac and Linux.

So far it’s looking good : UT veterans to develop it (i understand people that worked in the previous titles in this phrase, but it may also be community veterans/pro-gamers), developpement in the open, community listening, competitive fps and PC focus.

It will be free, it will not be playable anytime soon and there will be some sort of marketplace for sharing content (more on that later).

Two composers for UT99 and one from UT2kX will probably take part on the music for the new UT which is sweet

Michiel van den Bos :

Hi!

My name is Michiel van den Bos and one of the two main composers for the original Unreal and Unreal Tournament. It’s been a while and my memory’s a bit foggy, but my music has been featured in classic maps like Curse][, Codex, Facing Worlds, Tempest and many others. I’ve been composing for games ever since, including the universally praised soundtrack for Age of Wonders 3.

I’m writing here because I was getting messages and e-mails telling me I should, due to the announcement of the new UT.

I was wondering if there is any interest in me getting involved and I’m sure I can get Alex to join in too.
If so, I’d be happy to continue a discussion here or off-forum at mikebossmusic[at]gmail.com.

Thank you for your attention and best regards,
Michiel van den Bos

and Alexander Brandon :

Not a hoax. Michiel speaks true. And we greatly appreciate your support!

-Alexander Brandon

to which the lead of UT reply :

Michiel,
Of course we would be thrilled to have you and Alex involved in this project! The music you guys made always invokes tremendous nostalgia for me – I’m always instantly transported back to playing UT. How are you interested in participating?

Steven Polge

Then we have the chance to have Kevin Riepl :

It’s awesome to hear the responses and the passion for this series! It was so much fun working on it. Thanks for reaching out!
I know first hand that the fans are HUGELY attached to Michiel and Alex’s work on the early UT’s. Coming into the series for Ut2003 & 2004, that was made apparent, =) but i had different shoes to fill. And i am super happy that fans received my contribution to the series pretty well.
I agree with the lot, Michiel and Alex’s music embodies the true essence of what UT really is.

I’m certainly not opposed to being a part of this. I have no idea the schedule of the development and my contribution I suppose would depend on my schedule allowing it.
So that being said…much thanks for the passion for my music I wrote for UT. I hope I can stay on top of the info being circulated regarding the development.

Many Thanks.
Kevin.

with an answer from Steven Polge :

Kevin, you did a fantastic job with your contributions! For a lot of fans who were first introduced to the series with UT2004, your music is the definitive sound of the franchise (and it rocks). We’d love to have you participate if you are able. It’s a bit early for us now to have any specific development plans for music, but I know we’d love to have whatever you were able to do.

Thanks
Steven Polge

Considering the marketplace aforementioned, i don’t really know how it’ll go. If there are paid maps, there’s close to no chance they’ll be used. The small mods/mutators would be the same, how could we log into a server with paid suff in it ? why would we want to ?

In my opinion it will be more used for assets trading. You did assets for your successful map and people want to use them, why not put a small fee to compensate for your time ?
You’re mainly an 2D/3D designer and don’t want to map, put your stuff on the marketplace so someone will use it for a map.
You’re a mapper but don’t have any design skill and don’t want your map to look generic, go to the marketpalce ?

This could work, i know i would have paid for some assets i used in my map if the price was good. Also most of the talented and/or dedicated mappers know or learn at least some basic 2D/3D design so it shouldn’t be an issue for them.

I see how a big modes like “The Ball” by Hourence could use it, but gameplay only stuff should be forced to be free with a donation system, quoting myself from the forums :

In my opinion if a donation system is implemented, gameplay only things should be forced to this type of monetisation, meaning a map cannot be set to 1$ for example, it should always be free with donation. Same goes for mutators and such.

For full gamemodes i don’t know really as i never did any.

Then for assets (for mappers/modders to use i mean, not for player to be able to play a map/mod) and cosmetic stuff, you can chose to put it for free/donation/paid as you see fit.

This way everybody would get to play on every map with every mutator. But a good mapper/coder will be solicited and giving him some money would give him some incentive to work on more quality projects and pay for his subscription.

Two big points that are still not known at the moment is the use of Steam/Steam workshop (that could possibly compete with the UE marketplace and i’m not sure Valve would allow that) and the availability of a free Editor for the game when it’ll be released. The Unreal Engine 4 is what you need to use at the moment if you want to contribute and the subscrptions are paying for the developpement, but when the game is released (for free), will there be a free editor with it? The current subscription model for the whole engine will not work for it. I’m curious to see how they’ll fix that.

I hope for a free editor but i don’t think there will be one. My best bet is for some sort of one time paid editor, that will work exclusively with the game. I’d be totally fine to pay a normal amount of money for it (think about it like the price of a small game, 20-30$) as it would be the same as paying for the full game. I can’t see myself playing it for long without an editor to go with it, and a lot of people will probably do the same. It has always been the editor that differentiated the series with other arenaFPS, and it’s a big part of its longevity and success. A subscription based editor for unreal wouldn’t work in my opinion, i don’t see anyone willing to pay 20$ to get in the tracks for a map then paying again for realeasing it. I know i wouldn’t even start the project.

If you want to participate you can by joining the forums and expressing your opinion, looking at the code and giving feedback or suggesting changes. But at the end it’ll be Epic that will decide, so you better take your time before giving a fully thought out argumentation or it will probably be ignored. Be polite, discuss with logic, know to listen to counterpoints and the game will be better at the end.

It’s time for a new UT and the community being divised so much, it could be the beginning of the best UT to date if done right, or just die in a fire if the different communities can’t agree.
I hope for a unified movement style that would be a mix of UT99 and UT2k4, with maybe mutators for the true old styles and extremes. After having played a lot on each games, the best movement style in my opinion is the UT3 one, it’s really well balanced, fun, gives lots of place to personaly improve your skills while being easy to grasp, it also allows to produce great maps (balanced and fun). Just being able to move and do all sorts of trick-jumps with the UT3 movements is incredibly fun and rewarding (check how fun and hard can be the bunnytrial gamemode). The only things i’d like to change is a bit more speed, slightly less gravity and MAYBE short dodge-jump (not the full floaty one from UT2k4).

How Epic handle the movement balance will be the key for this game, i hope they’ll do it well, from a casual, competitive and mapping perspective.

Anyway i’m quite happy with the announcement as it gives a bit of activity in the games and various forums. It’s a good time to get back in the game you liked and try ( or try again) the ones you didn’t played or didn’t liked at first. They all 3 are great games with pros and cons, have lots of contents and insane customization potential.

https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/new-official-unreal-tournament-in-the-works-made-by-epic-games-with-the-help-of-the-community/feed/1Ut_blog_bannerplayforggOpen Tournament cancelledhttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/open-tournament-cancelled/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/open-tournament-cancelled/#commentsSun, 11 May 2014 12:23:28 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=150Continue reading Open Tournament cancelled→]]>Due to the anouncement of the developpement of the new Unreal Tournament by Epic Games, the lead of the Open Tournament project decided on general consensus to cancel the project and help for the new UT.

From the Unreal Engine 4 forums :

This project gets discontinued, Epic new Unreal Tournament is all we wanted from Open Tournament, so OT doesnt have a reason to exist now. The OT team and chat will still be there, for discussions and help regarding UE4. -vBlanco, lead designer of the OT project.

Sad news and bad luck for the timing, but with an official title, the project doesn’t answer to a need anymore. The team can now participate to the official project and help it become a better game, and that’s a good thing. Some of the mappers have already posted their work on the offical forums.

I’m comfident the start of a project like this may have been one of the reasons we have a new UT title in the work.

As you can see, it’s some serious busines for UT. Now i think it’ll be some sort of advertisement about Open tournament, as they previously showed no interest in making a new UT and showed a big interest in the OT project (you can check my first article about it here).
Maybe i’m just bitter and wrong, but following Epic Games for years now taught me not to set high expectations on any announcement of this type from them, as it could just be the fix for the servers following Gamespy ending or an Unreal megapack with modern OS compatibility.

Don’t get me wrong, i’d like to be wrong on this and that they announce UT4/UTlive or something like that.
I guess #firstblood and #unrealtournament will get some action

]]>https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/open-tournament-weapon-update-and-alpha/feed/0playforggProject Nex, an eSport focused arena FPS in the workshttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/project-nex-an-esport-focused-arena-fps-in-the-works/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/project-nex-an-esport-focused-arena-fps-in-the-works/#commentsFri, 02 May 2014 12:15:25 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=120Continue reading Project Nex, an eSport focused arena FPS in the works→]]>I’ve been following the developpement of NexFPS (or Project Nex) for a while now and feel like it has great potential to be the next “big” arena FPS (think about League of Legends for the Moba genre). The team developping it has some great talents and have a really interesting vision of the genre and how to make it accessible, fun, hard to master and enjoyable to watch at the same time. Keep in mind that what will follow is based on my own reading and thinking, on diverse website or media and it may not be entirely accurate, the game, pictures and footage are still in pre-alpha state as i publish this. I’ll be talking about it here as they plan on releasing an editor, so i may Map for it.
Enjoy the read

First of all, the team behind it are great people, i’ve been able to chat with some of them on IRC and they are really open on the project, while keeping their focus on what they think is important for the game instead of carving on what others tells them (like esr trashing the game because it’s not quake, despite all the attempts to revive Quake that all more or less failed). They are open on discussing ideas and concepts though, so if you think you have something great and well thought for the game and you can defend your point, make it known (links at the end of the post).
If you’re into UT, you probably know about Captain Flaccid who’s behind great maps for UT3 (DM-Deck-Pro2, DM-Lea-Pro or DM-1on1-Pure-Pro2 for example), knows a lot on the theory to make a great map and knows how to apply it. I really like the fact that he is currently behind the map design of Project Nex as that promises some great stuff.
For what i read and saw, they seems to go for HOLP style maps, with clean look and nothing to hinder movement or the ability to spot your opponents easily, which is a major point for eSport in my opinion.

On gameplay, they are going for something new, with an energy system, which you can use for trick moves, shield, some weapons and probably other stuff. The energy management will be a big part of the game, giving you lots of choice depending on the situation (movement, fight and so on). The special movements as of now are Dodge, Wall-Dodge, Wall-Run, Wall-Clamp, Lift-jump, Rocket-Jump and limited Bunny Hopping for burst speed gain. They all use energy (probably not Dodge and Rocket/Lift-jump, i’m not sure though) so you can’t just spam them all over the place, which adds a layer to master on the map-control and awareness as you don’t want to run out of energy at the bad moment.
The movements should be quite easy to pull-out but the good use of them and the energy should give a big advantage to the better player.
They are also experimenting on new kind of pickups, related to energy instead of classic armors, but i don’t know much about it.

Most of the difficulty and progression should come from the complexity of the weapons. There’s not much on it yet but the shield gun, which at the moment absorbs projectiles at the cost of energy for primary fire and does the same but can reflect projectiles as secondary.

The goal of the game is to bring old players and new players together behind some good frags and a strong eSport community. The team plan on multiple things to achieve that :

A ladder with seasons and matchmaking system (with some sort of ELO rating probably) on Duel and 4v4 CTF modes.

A custom game mode, in which you can do whatever sort of game you want, with classic game modes and community ones.

A way of viewing currently or previously played games easily and strong viewer/caster tools.

Free to play multiplayer with paid options for visual stuff like skins (read : no pay to win) and a paid Solo mode (first level will be free)

Good tutorials for new players (i read something on it but can’t find it anywhere, maybe IRC so nothing officially announced)

Concerning mods and maps, they achieved Steam Greenlight, so i guess they will go with Steam workshop to distribute easily the player-made custom content. They want to allow the best community maps in the ladders’ rotation, which should encourage quality mapping. I feel like that can makes the difference.

We aim to roll out the first stage of playable multiplayer beta in September 2014, with a December 2014 release date scheduled.

If you want to know more here are some links or you can just head over reddit, IRC or use the official website’s contact form to get directly in touch with the team.

]]>https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/project-nex-an-esport-focused-arena-fps-in-the-works/feed/3railgunplayforggCharacterShield GunOpen Tournament, a community-made open source Unreal Tournament spiritual sequelhttps://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/open-tournament-a-community-made-open-source-unreal-tournament-spiritual-sequel/
https://playforgg.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/open-tournament-a-community-made-open-source-unreal-tournament-spiritual-sequel/#commentsFri, 11 Apr 2014 16:41:16 +0000http://playforgg.wordpress.com/?p=98Continue reading Open Tournament, a community-made open source Unreal Tournament spiritual sequel→]]>Edit : The project is cancelled due to the new UT’s developpement. (More on the cancelling here and on the new UT here)

Yeah, that’s a lot of words.
A non-profit open source (if you have access to Unreal Engine 4 developpement tools) spiritual sequel to Unreal tournament is currently being developped on Unreal Engine 4.
The project is currently named Open Tournament and aim at recreate the game we all love and will be release for free with a few of maps, the core of the game (movements, multiplayer, basic game modes, etc.) and a few weapons with the intent of the community making what’s needed. Everybody can work on it and make his/her skills to contribution.
The project has been allowed by Epic Games themselves, with the condition of not using the Unreal Tournament name or any trademarked or copyright protected content in the project.

Hi Everybody,

We are very honored to see how many people are interested in creating this project; it speaks volumes about how much Unreal Tournament has touched our lives.

I went ahead and talked about this to our business department and what it comes down to is this: We encourage you to create a community-based “spiritual sequel” project that can be 100% your own. We would be ecstatic to see a project that is inspired by the fast-paced and intense gameplay of Unreal Tournament. However, we also want to make sure there are no business complications down the road, so please do not use the Unreal Tournament name or any trademarked or copyright protected content in the project. Other than that, we are thrilled to see what will come of the project. Please keep us posted with updates!
– Alexander Paschall,

At the moment i write this, there are some movements done (double-jump and dodge for what i heard) and a map near completion with two others in the works (DM-Deck, DM-Morpheus and CTF-Face). The editor looks really good and have some great possibilities the UT3Ed don’t have so i may build a map or two for it soon depending on how the game flows as i prefer UT99/UT3 movement style and gravity over UT2004 floatiness for different reasons related to gameplay and mapping. Wait for a DM-Malevolence remake by me ;). Expect HOLP style from lot of mappers for this as they are the ones which are the most played in UT3, being easy for the eye while beautifuly designed via textures, trims, geometry and lights. They also have top tier gameplay, are playable competitively without killing the visuals and are easier to build than standard maps.

After Tim Sweeney’s announcement that Epic don’t have plans to make a new Unreal Tournament for now, i have my moral back up with this project. It may or may not succeed, but it’s really interesting and motivating nonetheless.
Unreal Tournament for life

Lots of changes since 0.8, some rooms are differents and the map feels more unified. Some weapons have been moved around and there is now 2 version, 1 for Duel and the other for 2v2.
I didn’t had time to implement things in it so it’s just an update on architecture/layout. More on the changes in the description.

Description :

The map is inspired by a mix of portal and my favorite manufacturer in Borderlands : Maliwan.

DM-MaliwanBeta2 is aimed at competitive 2v2.

DM-1on1-MaliwanBeta2 is aimed at competitive Duel.

Some pickup/item placements are differents between both.

Standard has 30a, helmet and Udamage.
1on1 has 30a, 50a and Belt. Snipe is moved down to leave the place for 50a and helmet is removed. Some ammos moved around.

It’s a total fragfest with anything over 6 people.

The map contains all weapons pickup except the enforcer and supers. It contains the Belt/Udamage, 50a/Helmet and 30a. There are 3 ammo pack of each weapon, one is next to the pickup, the others on the other side of the map.
Life packs are concentrated on the 1st floor while the armors are on the last floor.
There are 15 spawn points.
There are lots of trickjumps, if it seems doable, then it is.
Bots time and take all the armors quite well (at least in Masterful and above).
The orange force-fields are shoot-through windows.

The map is mostly BSP at the moment, it contains custom textures, meshes and music.
The Belt and UDamage bases blink around 3 seconds before being available.
A pulse effect appears on walls when the Udamage and the Belt are available.
As a side-effect bonus, with a fast map start and good pickup timing on the belt and Udamage, the first Udamage and the first 3 belts are sort of synchronized with the music.

The map is in Beta stage, everything is subject to change.
What i really need is to know if an area between Minigun and Link should be made or not on the bottom right of the map to space Weapon/pickups/life (see map pictures).
Feel free to comment on the rest of the map of course, i’ll take note of it for the final.

Here’s a to-do list of what i plan for the final :

Layout correction based on feedback. Should be minor now, except maybe an area between Minigun and Link. (see above)

Blocking volumes everywhere (mostly).

Ambient sounds.

Visual overhaul including :

Better lifts and bot pathing

Reworked lighting (it’s currently placeholder for beta purpose)

Material overhaul and fix the seamless grid texture not being seamless.

Bots can have some hard time doing the lift jump on the Bio lift, resulting in them waiting another cycle. It tends to be erratic in occurence.

Grid material looks black when seen from the bottom, but not on every brush.

Bots can be stuck on 30a jumppad.

There are collision bugs here and there due to unfitting or lack of Blocking volume. Please report if you find any.

There is a big collision bug on the wall left to the window where the Snipe is located on the 1on1 version. It’s reproductible by hugging the wall while looking to the window. I can’t seem to remove it whatever i do.

Lighting looks crap.

Thanks:

SteveLois and Hourences for tutorials and links to awesome stuff.

Nobiax for some base textures to work on.

Scott “Cr4zyb4st4rd” Coxhead for the glass texture.

Neillithan for the uncooked version of DM-1on1-Pure-Pro2 for the jumpad effect.

NiT GriT for the music (The Awakening). If you are in the wubwub and you like it, check his website, tons of great stuff freely available.

N00b_Zaibot for his great layouts on which i try to get inspiration.

Christelle, Nours and Luap for the countless hours spent helping with the layout evolution tests.

SteveLois, Neillithian and Wolfy.Brandon for their great advice.

Everybody that helped with feedback.

Epic Games, BeyondUnreal and UOF forums for having the solution to most of the problems encountered before i ask the question.